Green is the colour of the week.

I've been in my element this week as all the classes so far have been green compositions. I could paint in greens and limes all day long, there's just something about the colours that delight me. It's my favourite colour - although you'll rarely find me actually wearing it.

Greens, I think, suit black canvases perfectly. While the black basepaint was out I thought it might be a good idea to get all the canvases prepped for next week's classes too. I like to do these in batches and it saves time for me in the long run.

Here's a snapshot of a small portion of yesterday's painting subject- my old favourite 'Mangrove Oasis'. It was the subject of the first 'big' class I ever taught. I was asked if I ever get tired of painting it - my answer is simple: It's green and it has trees and I could paint this sort of thing 7 days a week. But, interestingly, I do get tired of painting some class subjects. When that happens I simply remove them from the website. It's no good me feeling slightly 'anti' before a class, I have to love what I do or I'm not giving my students the best I possibly can. So - that may answer the mystery of why some subjects seem to come and go.

Hello world

I'm sat here in the middle of some admin tasks wondering what to write for my news entry for today. This may interest you, it may not. It's certainly nothing to do with art. Sometimes I look into my website statistics more deeply than others - some days I don't look at them at all. To be honest, there's so many aspects to the statistics charts and I can't say I understand them all. I just concentrate on the more important figures - like what pages are popular, how people are finding me, what their word searches are. Where my referrals are coming from. It's very rare that I view the actual country locations of my readers but this afternoon I thought I'd check it out. Wanna know ? Going straight to the top of the chart we have the UK, followed by the USA. That I expect. Next we have - in order of sessions - Australia, Germany, Russia, Japan, China (that means I can expect some spam emails), Uruguay, Sweden, Ukraine, France, Mauritius, Spain, Colombia, Austria (Hello Helga), Bulgaria, Canada, Netherlands, Portugal, Indonesia, Israel and finally Kenya. Some visitors' locations fall under the heading 'un resolved' - no idea what that could mean. Some fall under the heading 'EU'. So - a big hello to the world, I'm watching you watching me........or rather, these beautiful blue eyes are watching you. They are the work of my recent portrait student. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Portraiture for beginners and improvers

Here's a little News Flash that may interest fellow painters. As from July I will be teaching portraiture. It's something Valerie and I have been discussing for a while and, after the recent Portrait Seminar, the time is right. I must stress, portraiture cannot be completed in a single class and cannot really be compared to the wet on wet landscapes. To begin with, portraiture classes will be taught as private lessons or small groups of up to 4 people. If you'd like details about this sooner rather than wait until July, do feel free to contact me. Meanwhile, I leave you with Harry, my latest one.......I can share him with you now that he's been delivered and given the thumbs up by the family.

Another scorcher !

This morning I woke up to another beautiful morning. The house was all still and quiet and I could see the brilliant sunshine through the window, beckoning. So, without thinking, I threw on some clothes, grabbed my sunglasses and set off on my bike. I'd intended a 7 mile route. A 'Road Closed' sign put paid to that......in a good way. I took a diversion, probably adding another 3 or 4 miles to my route. Through the country lanes with rape fields in bloom I pretty much had the roads to myself, apart from a few pheasants, a squirrel and some rabbits. I met a couple of cyclists en route, all geared up in their cycling shorts and streamlined helmets. Me....well I just ambled along with my bottle of water and camera in the shopping basket of my 3 geared bike. Here's a beautiful scene I stumbled upon. I was home by 7.30am and guess what......... The house was all still and quiet - few snores coming from the bedrooms.

Hot Hot Hot

Has it been a hot one where you all are? Yesterday morning at 9.30am Pauline, Alison and I set off headed for Stowupland again. We're organising a ramble for the WI ladies in August. Today we had a second trial run, taking in a different route. Pauline and I decided to cover a walk that we used to enjoy when we were about 10/11 years old. A slightly shorter walk this time led us through a farm, several fields and many country lanes with the occassional little stream. We stumbled upon a farm with an open day event. In we popped and spent a little while looking at the animals and stalls. We sat on a bale in the sun and enjoyed 3 cups of tea and 2 slices of cake for just over £2.50 for the lot ! A familiar face from my past school days served us too. I have to laugh at Pauline as she issued a warning to Alison. 'Be careful what you say and do and watch out when she gets the camera out as it could all end up on Sue's News" she said. Mmmmmm. Would I be so cheeky? I think not. Instead I shall leave you with a photo I took of a couple of cows.

Garden work

I'm not enjoying the cold snaps we've been having. Like fellow painter Liz, my runner beans have been ruined by frost and not one has survived. Luckily I've got a few more in pots behind glass and I'll get those planted out maybe in a few weeks. I've a couple of hanging baskets planted up that are in the greenhouse for the time being, and a few outside tomatoes that are still indoors until I'm pretty certain they too won't get taken by the cold nights. Yet, my strawberry planter is looking lovely with a few fruits and plenty of blossoms. Our 3 grape vines are really springing into life now. This year I really must make Warak Aynab - a Lebanese dish of stuffed vine leaves, delicious. My peas are slow to grow but at least they are alive still as are my pots of sweet peas. Whilst on the subject of gardening, I was recently given the most delightful Burgundy Ice rose bush. It's been sat in a pot on my patio for over a week. Today I found the ideal spot for it, slap bang in the middle of my front lawn. The label says it thrives in most soils and needs an open sunny position - well, that's just what it's got. (It also says it will bloom throughout the Summer - so fingers crossed).

Another portrait project

I'd been itching to get cracking on another celebrity portrait. I took this snap as I broke for a coffee break at the half way stage of the underpainting to get away from the project for 10 minutes. I'd be very surprised indeed if anyone gets it at this stage. Hopefully by the time I've fully finished this stage I'll have a reasonable resemblance. I better not let myself get too distracted as I want to finish the underpainting totally so it's dry to work on tomorrow.

On yer bike.....

I'm mobile again. My bike, which was stolen from my drive last year has been sorely missed. I really used to enjoy my bike rides. I was lucky enough to receive a new bike for my birthday which is practically identical to the old one - apart from the colour. The new one is purple, the old one was green. I have a lock and chain for it and it's nice and secure. If this lovely weather continues you can be sure I'll be out there as often as I can clocking up the miles.

Learn to paint Portraits in Oils - With Valerie Stewart

I've just uploaded a larger version of my recent Jimmy Carr portrait to my gallery page - which can be seen HERE. I emailed the finished piece to Portrait expert Valerie Stewart, along with the photo I was working from.

I'm thrilled to have received this message back: I am VERY IMPRESSED with your painting. I'm going to look it over with a magnifying glass and see if I find anything but at first glance I see no problems!!!

After close scrutiny, Valerie writes: I honestly don't see anything .... (sorry) :) It is VERY GOOD. Maybe a small shadow on the top of his fingernail???? Maybe a pinch of pink in the lips??? I LOVE it. YOU'RE AWESOME!!!!

So, that's pretty much made my day :)

If you'd like to come along to Valerie's 4 day Portrait workshop here in June, (full details can be found HERE) do drop me a line or give me a call to register your interest. For those of you who haven't yet sent your deposits, please be aware time is getting on if you want to be 100% certain of your booking. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy one of Valerie's more recent celebrity portraits.

Portrait Painting

I'm pleased I don't have to drive down the narrow lanes of Ufford tonight - if they've had the same weather as Capel they'd be pretty much snowbound. We've had an absolute blizzard here today with 2 inches covering my patio in under an hour. At times it was coming down so thick you could barely see out the window. With weather like this it's ideal to set up in the cosy warm and get painting. My recent portrait project was next on the list and late this afternoon I decided to get cracking on some more details. There's still loads to do but the 3 base skin tone colours are in and I've started to work on some detailed areas. The eyes are in and I feel it makes the painting start to come to life.

Demonstration for the ladies of Ufford

I opened last night's demo with a question. Just as I was about to start my journey to rural Ufford, the car groaned and died. Luckily, within minutes Alan arrived. He diagnosed a dead battery, attached the jump leads, bringing life back within seconds. He gave me the leads (just incase I had problems starting her again) although he assured me the journey should charge the battery. So my question to the ladies of Ufford was.......'If I laid a set of jump leads on the table how many of you would actually know what to do with them?' I was relieved when about 8 ladies put their hands up. 'Good', I replied, 'Please don't any of you leave until you know my car starts'. (It did.....................)

Bubbling.......at last

It's been nice Pop Art painting away to some gentle background noises. Yes, we've more wine on the go. We started it over the weekend and normally we get bubbles fairly quickly from the yeast. This batch sat dormant for a couple of days but I'm happy to say it's been bubbling away like a good 'un.Our girls (the feathered ones) seem to be a lot more active too and I'm delighted to see we've gone from one egg a day (almost) to two. What's more, the extra egg we've been getting has been a blue one. Nice to know Henrietta, our cream legbar, is back in her laying mode - although we can never really be sure that she ever stopped laying. Wouldn't surprise me if I came across a big pile of eggs tucked away under the woodpile, or in the hedge. Hopefully it won't be too long before they are all back on full production.

Website housekeeping

Over the last few days, when I've had a few minutes, I've been having a jiggle about with the website. Some jiggling has gone on behind the scenes and some jiggling has affected the way some of my webpages now appear. I've tended to update my website on automatic pilot mode for a long time now and I've not really paid attention to how things can perhaps be refined, made a little easier on the eye (and the screen). So.................if you see a few little changes, don't be alarmed. You would not believe how many photos I deleted yesterday from the website album.....some as old as 2006. I guess it's my little premature Spring Clean!

Easy Access

One of my students made her way to me via public transport from London today. There's a direct train from Liverpool Street Station, leaving at around 8am, arriving just after 9am in Ipswich. It only takes me 10 minutes (at that time of day, traffic permitting) to get to the station so I was able to pick her up and we enjoyed a hot drink and shortbread before the class started. It was Rebeka's first time ever at oil painting and she was amazed at the results she achieved. I'm eagerly waiting to see what her friends and family think of her work. 'They'll never believe I made this all by myself', she kept saying. So I took photos for her on her phone camera, which she eagerly sent to her fiends. Rebeka reeled off all the other paintings she wanted to make, so I think she'll be taking that train journey a few times. I was able to secure her painting and protect it so she could take it home with her. She was guarding it with her life when I dropped her back at the station!

Venetia - a 2 day painting project

I needed to refresh my memory on a little area on the 'Venetia' painting. I'm teaching the second stage of it later this week. I've actually ended up painting the whole thing again, partly to increase my speed and partly to double check the bit I wasn't 100% sure about. (You can see I don't leave anything to chance when it comes to a painting class!) What I'm left with is a completely different colour tone - which just illustrates how colour mixes can change a painting. Probably mood has a big influence too. A bold and fearless student will paint a completely different painting to a quiet and timid person. If you scroll down you'll see the much richer and deeper earlier version of the same composition.

Avatar

WOW - I'm sure many of you have already heard of the rave reviews on the spectacular 3D Film - Avatar........ Yesterday we decided to pop along to the cinema and give it a look for ourselves. It's one of the most fabulously filmed movies I've ever seen and the 3D effects are amazing. But, if you were to ask me what I enjoyed the very best - it's the colours. Psychadelic, very bright and surreal, it's an absolute feast for your eyes. My favourite characters are the little jellyfish floating seeds - I could put up with a few of those floating around me. If you haven't seen it yet, it really is a must, suitable for 12 years and over it will appeal to just about every one, I'm sure.

Change of date

I have rescheduled tomorrow's class 'Woodland's End' to Saturday 6th February. In fairness, I only advertised this class on the website a week ago, which was a little ambitious on my part and very short notice for students too. Details and images of the up coming painting subjects and dates can be found HERE.

By hook or by crook......

.................... I was determined to get some painting done this week. And I made sure that things were in my favour by setting everything up last night. It's been a relaxing day, but the picture has been put together in fits and starts. I've taken time out to make phone calls, do a bit of admin work, got distracted on the net and even had a neighbour over for coffee. But I did keep coming back to it and adding bits. This is what we have so far and I might carry on with it - I might not. It might end up being a new painting subject or I might fiddle it to death and it might not. I already know I shall be framing it and I will enter it into my first exhibition of the year. What shall I call it? any ideas?

Your first Bamburgh Castle Painting - just by following the DVD

The first 'Bamburgh' of the year has just been received....... Kim e-mailed me this finished piece earlier today. I really like the very rich reds and I like the addition of the birds in several different groups. I think it works really well. I will pop a larger image in Sue's Forum so you can see better. Well done Kim. I know Kim won't mind me telling you she painted this at an ungodly time in the morning. 'Duty' called at 5.30am and instead of returning to bed afterwards, Kim decided to take brush to hand and paint her readily prepared canvas. If anyone else would like to have a go at this step by step tuitional DVD project, you can find the shopping cart by clicking HERE.